


What's a Hickey?

by almaasi



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Castiel & Sam Winchester Friendship, Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, Ficlet, Fluff, Hickeys, Human Castiel, M/M, Marking, Relationship Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 20:28:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3460961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/almaasi/pseuds/almaasi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Cas have a conversation about hickeys. Specifically, about the one on Castiel's neck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What's a Hickey?

**Author's Note:**

> This was written at the exact minute I was about to go to bed at the end of a long day, and then it took an hour. Ergo, I'm sleepy. Prompt was from [a post on tumblr](http://almaasi.tumblr.com/post/112412764605/send-me-a-pairing-and-a-number-and-ill-write-you) and [an anon who didn't see my tags](http://almaasi.tumblr.com/post/112429175480/21-destiel-for-the-number-thing).  
> Enjoy!

"What's that?"

Castiel looked up from Sam's laptop, narrowing his eyes at his friend. Sam was pointing at him.

"What's what?" Castiel asked, his gaze snapping from his shirt sleeves to his tie, then to his crotch. "Is there a ketchup stain I'm not seeing?"

"No, no. That." Sam pointed again, scooting one seat nearer and leaning over the table. The distant bustle of other people in the library faded away as Castiel realised what Sam was referring to.

"Oh," Castiel said lightly, lowering his eyes as he set his fingers over the bruise. His neck bristled; he still felt the heat of breath on his skin and teeth bristling the finest hairs that grew there. "That's a... hunting injury."

Castiel didn't need to see Sam's face to know he now looked concerned. "Does it hurt?" Sam asked. "It looks kinda like a bite, actually." He tilted his head to take a better look, and Castiel dared not move away. His face _burned_ , but he took reassurance from knowing the blush probably wouldn't show on his cheeks.

"It's fine," Castiel said eventually, waving Sam away. "It'll heal."

Sam didn't budge. "It really does look like a bite. Or a suction mark. Hey, have you had any weird turns lately? Like... missing time, waking up and you don't remember what you've done? Or a deja vu feeling? Or—"

"Nothing like that," Castiel interrupted. He began scrolling the webpage in front of him, pretending to read. "Come on, we should get this research finished or Dean will have a genuine reason to complain about us not pulling our weight."

Sam edged back along the table and planted himself back in his own seat, but he still looked wary. Castiel couldn't hold his eye, his gaze always drawn back to his own gently clenching and unclenching hands.

"You know what it reminds me of?" Sam said.

Castiel sighed, shutting the laptop lid and giving Sam his full attention, accompanied by a dead-eyed stare. "I don't know, Sam," he said, in his dullest voice. "What does it remind you of?"

Sam smirked. "A hickey."

Castiel blinked. "What's a hickey?"

Sam's eyebrows rose by a fraction of an inch. "Also known as a lovebite? People do that to each other in the, uh... heat of the moment."

Castiel felt a thrill of excitement and apprehension and realisation, all at once. So! It hadn't been something bizarre and disturbing Dean had decided to do – applying 'lovebites' was apparently the done thing when one took a lover. Finding that out was almost a relief.

"What's with you, Cas?" Sam asked, grinning now. The grin slid away as quickly as it had arrived. "Wait. You do _remember_ getting it, don't you?"

"Oh, yes. Of course." Castiel thumbed at the side of the closed laptop, then smiled. "I doubt I could forget." He looked Sam straight in the eyes, and said, "It wasn't a monster."

"Really?" Sam hummed in a chirpy way. "Fascinating. Tell me more."

Castiel parted his lips, suddenly realising that Sam knew exactly what he hadn't yet said.

Sam laughed, shaking his head. "You don't have to say it. Might be better for Dean if you don't say it, in fact."

Castiel took a breath, holding it as he steeped himself in his thoughts, but then let his breath go when he had brewed nothing helpful. "All right," he said, and he opened up the laptop again.

Over the next few minutes, Sam glanced at Castiel five, ten times. He seemed more interested in Castiel's hickey than he was in his research, and Castiel couldn't exactly blame him.

Soon enough, Castiel found he couldn't take it any more, and he closed his laptop again. "It was Dean," he muttered.

Sam looked up from his book, pretending he hadn't already been staring. "Sorry, what?"

"Dean gave me this hickey." Castiel swallowed, watching Sam's polite frown clear away, only to be replaced by a put-on expression of mild shock. "He gets... overexcited, and in the 'heat of the moment', as you put it, he can become... um. Pretty wild." An uncontrollable smirk drew Castiel's mouth into a lopsided grin, and he let it take over. The thought – the _memory_ of Dean so crazed by lust and his insistent need to show affection made Castiel so hot in the face that he might've truly blushed this time.

Sam looked nothing short of stunned. "Wow," he choked out. "S-So you and him are—"

"Yes," Castiel said plainly. "Very much so."

"Huh? I-- I was going to ask if you're... sleeping together."

"Oh." Castiel blinked a couple of times. "Well, it's more a case of us taking the chances where we can get them—" the back seat of the car, the _front_ seat of the car, the park with the swings last week, the bathroom of that Denny's restaurant they went for breakfast yesterday, "—but yes. Yes, we're together."

Sam tapped the end of his pen against his books. "So what did you mean by 'very much so'?"

Castiel shut his eyes, taking a second to settle the happy flip in his stomach. He opened his eyes again. "We're very much in love."

Sam began to smile. He smiled so widely that Castiel wondered how widely he _could_ smile; this smile certainly exceeded any prior assumptions Castiel might've made about Sam's face. And it was a smile of pride, undoubtedly. Perhaps he'd never smiled this much because he'd never been this proud before.

It was a good smile to see. Castiel felt honoured he'd seen it.

"Good. Now _that_ is over with," Castiel started, opening up the laptop and scrolling back up to where he'd begun fake-reading, "we have actual work to do, Sam."

"Right," Sam nodded, then cleared his throat.

Not two seconds later, Castiel snuck a glance at Sam, only to see Sam smirking back. They both grinned, then went back to doing what they were meant to be doing.

Five minutes later they'd be playing rock-paper-scissors to determine who would tell Dean he was well and truly outed from that translucent shower curtain he called a closet, but until Castiel lost that game (or won it, depending on one's perspective), he was perfectly content to sit in silence, pretending he didn't notice when Sam looked at that damn hickey every thirty seconds.

The mark still burned a bit. Now Castiel understood its purpose, he supposed it was a pleasant reminder of a precious, intimate moment. It didn’t seem a stretch to wonder, perhaps Dean would enjoy receiving a little lovebite, next time he and Castiel got a moment alone...

**Author's Note:**

> No sequels or second chapters in the works for this one, guys. Apologies.
> 
> I will say, though: giving a fic author kudos is kind of like giving them a hickey, but they're not painful, and they take less effort to give. But they're just as exciting. (Hint hint?)
> 
> I hope you all have yourselves a magnificent day. ♥


End file.
